Today — if you’re reading this on Wednesday — is the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Catholic Church this is a Holy Day of Obligation and most Churches have added an extra Mass or two so all Catholics can attend.
Conceived without Sin
The Immaculate Conception is a dogma many people confuse it with the Annunciation, when Mary conceived Jesus. Today we celebrate a natural conception with one enormous difference: Mary was exempt from the stain of original sin.
This was God’s plan for the Mother of His Son. He would be conceived through the power of The Holy Spirit, and grow and develop in the spotless tabernacle of Mary’s womb.
The Dogma was declared in 1854 by Pope Pius IX and a beautiful statue of the Immaculate Conception was cast at this time and remains near the Piazza de Spagna in Rome. A copy of this statue graces the dome of the main building on the campus of Notre Dame, IN. It was a gift to Notre Dame from the students of St. Mary’s College for Women, when the main building was rebuilt following the fire of 1879.
Democrats and the Values Gap
A column in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune by Christopher Soper and Paul Contino says the values gap between the Republicans and Democrats centers on one thing: abortion, an issue that will not allow compromise.
Then they attempt in the rest of their column to suggest ways the Democrats can tap into the values issue, namely support a ban on partial birth abortion and adopt President’ Bush’s Faith Based Initiative program, but go even further than the Republicans and stop taking directions from the likes of the ACLU. They say the Democrat party at present is in a kind of exile, but may discover during this exile just what the values of the majority of Americans are.
These Pepperdine professors make sense, but we seriously doubt that the Democrats are willing to make such changes. But nice try.
Kathleen Parker, under the same headline, “Is there a values gap, and does it really matter?” says Bush is sure to disappoint the Christian right because he will not give them what they want, or as quickly as they want it. She’s probably on track, and her column makes sense, that Bush really doesn’t deserve the “zealot” label.
Clarence Page doesn’t think Bush’s victory was so much a values thing as a trust thing. People felt safer with Bush than they would have with Kerry. He makes a point, too.
Please Join Us at the Mills
You, dear reader, are always welcome to join us out at the abortion mills, or to join your local group if you are an out of town caller. I’m sure many of you do, but if you don’t, please try it. You won’t regret it.
